Facebook is one of the best ways to promote your business. Your long-term success relies completely on captivating our customer’s attention. Short video-clips are one of the most effective ways to grab and hold our customers attention. But, why is that?
Written word vs. video clips
I’m sure you have heard the expression “a picture paints a thousand words“. We are more likely to remember the tiniest details, of a painting and maybe only a verse or two of our favorite poetry. We are designed to react to visual content more than written content, even more, if visual and oral content are combined at the same time, such as with a video.
The customers are able to absorb easily the information, with video. We want to grab their attention and help them remember what they just learned, so our customers will not forget about us in the near future.
Times are changing, and our customers are being bombarded with information of all types. Studies have shown that the average person’s attention span is only 8 seconds. As a result, we only have 8 seconds to grab their attention and hold it. That is why videos are so effective in promoting our business. It gets them hooked, and they begin absorb the information.
How long is too long?
Have you started watching a video on Facebook and notice it is longer than expected? Then, you just stop the video and move on to something else? We all do this. That is why it is so critical to select the appropriate correct duration of our Facebook videos. We want our customers to watch them, from beginning to end.
The key to effective Facebook videos is getting your main points across. We don’t want viewers to feel like they’re wasting their precious time. So, how long is too long?
It all depends on the type of video you intend to show. We’ve listed the ideal length for different types of videos below:
- Customer testimonial videos: They should be about 30 seconds. These types of videos help the customers see that your business is trustworthy.
- Your company videos: They should be about 30 to 60 seconds. Briefly explain the product or service that your business provides.
- Product or service videos: These videos can be about 1 to 2 minutes. Customers are willing to spend more time watching these types of videos because it helps them decide, whether they will purchase your product or service.
There are also different types of product videos that you can post on your Facebook’s wall.
1) Product overview: 30 to 60 seconds. It should be a quick explanation explaining your product or services.
2) How your product is made: 1 to 2 minutes. Show the process, and explain how your product is the best on the market.
3) Demonstrating your product or service: 1 to 2 minutes. Customers are willing to spend the most time watching this type of video. As they feel they are learning something and deciding if your service or product is worth the cost.
Still, even though customers are willing to watch videos that are longer than 1 minute, it is recommended to edit your Facebook video-clips to under sixty seconds. You want to wet their appetite for more, so they will watch another video-clip right then or in the future, about your business. You don’t want to firehose them in the first video. The point is to keep it short and sweet.
Facebook is more contagious than the common cold.
Facebook allows users to interact with the content that they read or view. How so? Let’s say, you just watched a video-clip and you enjoyed it. What do you do next? You interact by hitting the “like” tab, this allows all of your followers to observe and see the video clip that you liked. You might even leave a comment.
So it piqued someone else’s curiosity, so they watch the video-clip, and the saga continues. One “like” leads to another and then another. It is like a common cold, extremely contagious. This helps promote your business, in ways that mainstream advertising could never do.
The key is having a well-developed and thought-out video-clip that your customers will enjoy and promote for you, without even knowing they’re doing so. This means you should the time and make a quality video-clip that will grab their attention span and hold it for the entire video.
What to avoid
We have all been around that proud father, who can only talk about his children. We tend to block them out after a few seconds because it’s boring and not interesting. What can that example teach us?
Well, we don’t want to just talk about how awesome our business is on our Facebook videos. That would just be a total snooze! We would be like that bragging proud parent mentioned above. We want to explain how our business can help them make their lives better, if they choose our business. Suddenly, our video is interesting and informative. So, avoid making boring Facebook videos that only talk about you and your business.
In addition, avoid bad-mouthing your competition. The customer is well aware that they have many options for the same service or product. By cutting down your competition, it makes you look desperate. Moreover, it will make the customer curious about your competition’s product or service, and they might go check them out. Overall, it is just in poor taste to insult the competition.
Quick overview
As we have learned, short video-clips on our business’s Facebook account are vital to having a successful business. But, try and keep your videos short and sweet. Remember that, we only have 8 seconds to grab their attention and we can only hold it for less than 2 minutes, depending on the type of video.
With so many advertising options out there, it can get confusing regarding which one will come out the most profitable. To start, it is important to do things in the most efficient way possible. Now that you know how long your videos should be, that will take out some of the guesswork. So, get out there and start filming your first Facebook video.
